Family Portrait
by MariCareBear
Summary: Miranda's family life isn't like Lizzie's, this is a glimpse at it, to the song of Pink which I don't own1parter


~*~Mama please stop cryin  
I can't stand the sound  
Your pain is painful and it's  
Tearing me down~*~  
  
Miranda pulls the pillow over her head trying to make the sound of her father's yelling and her mother crying. Miranda was surprised she ever slept, her parents fighting was becoming more and more frequent.  
  
~*~I hear glasses breaking   
As I sit up in my bed  
I told God you didn't mean  
Those nasty things you said~*~  
  
The pillow doesn't block sounds out, Miranda bolts up in bed at the sound of glass shattering against a wall close to Miranda's bedroom. Miranda can hear the things her father says clearly and she clasps her hands tightly in and apologizes to God for everything he has said. If her parents are ever going to work things it would be better to have God on their said.  
  
~*~You fight about money  
About me and my brother~*~  
  
Miranda strains her ears to hear what caused the fight this time. Sunday night it had been about Miranda's mother buying an expensive new outfit. And now, only 2 days later, they are fighting about Miranda and her siblings spending the summer at Miranda's maternal grandparents.  
  
~*~And this I come home to  
This is my shelter~*~  
  
Lizzie and Gordo don't know about what goes on in Miranda's house. This was why Miranda spent so much time at Lizzie house because Lizzie's parents got along and Miranda constantly found herself wishing for Lizzie's life.  
  
~*~It aint easy growin up in WWIII  
Never knowin what love could be~*~  
  
The only taste of love Miranda ever saw was from Lizzie's parents. For the last 9 years Miranda's parents had found something to argue about. It all began when Serena, who was now 9, was a baby. Miranda's older brother and sister, Santiago and Drusila had assured Miranda that everything was going to be all right. But eventually they had stopped and now nobody talked about the fighting.  
  
~*~You'll see, I don't want to destroy me  
Like it has done my family~*~  
  
Miranda had decided long ago that she was never marrying or having children. She was never going to give herself to be hurt by love like her parents were. And she was never putting children through the pain her parents had put her siblings through.  
  
~*~Daddy please stop yelling  
I can't stand the sound   
Make mama stop cryin  
Cause I need you around~*~  
  
Miranda's door creaks open as her father's yells grow louder and her mother's cries are covered by his voice.  
"Can we sleep with you?" 11-year-old Gabriella asks with Serena had her side.   
"Sure." Miranda nods scooting over on her bed to make room for her two younger sisters whom have never known anything but the fighting.  
  
~*~My mama she loves you  
No matter what she says is true  
I know that she hurts you  
But remember I love you too~*~  
  
"I hate you! I want you out!" Miranda's mother's hateful words float through the door.  
  
~*~I ran away today, ran from the noise  
Ran away (ran away)  
Don't wanna go back to that place  
But I don't have no choice, no way~*~  
  
Miranda had left that morning and hadn't come home until curfew. She'd had no where to go but she spent the entire day driving as far out of town as possible and it had taken everything in her to turn around so that she could make it home by curfew. Not that it mattered her parents had all ready been in the middle of battle when she walked into the house and they hadn't even taken notice when she slipped into her bedroom.  
  
~*~In our family portrait   
We look pretty happy  
Let's play pretend,   
let's act like it comes naturally~*~  
  
Serena and Gabriella's even breathing assures Miranda that her sisters are asleep when she turns on the bedside lamp. Picking up the photo on the table Miranda gazes into the faces of her family years ago when they had been happy. Miranda had been 5 and she sat on her father's shoulders holding onto a balloon. 7 year-old Santiago was making faces at the camera and 6-year-old Dru was holding onto her mother's hand and 9-month old Gabriella was giggiling at the camera and Miranda's parents were using their free hands to hold each other's hands.  
Miranda could spend hours staring at the pictures trying to recall every memory she had of her family when they were happy but the she was so young that the memories are so few that Miranda mostly thinks about the day at the amusement park when the picture had been taken.  
~*~I don't wanna have to split the holidays  
I don't want to two addresses  
I don't want a stepbrother anyway  
And I don't want my mom to have to change her last name~*~  
  
Miranda could remember when Ethan's parents got divorced. Ethan was no constantly being tossed back and forth between her parents and Miranda felt bad for him, more than anything she didn't want to have to go back and forth between her parents.  
  
~*~Daddy don't leave....Daddy don't leave~*~  
  
But for the first time ever when the house falls silent the front door slams shut and Miranda whispers one word into the silence, "Daddy." 


End file.
